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BrianBoitano

Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 4:01 pm

Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Posts: 124 Location: Houston, TX

--- description ---
Tired of Jittes and Dual Lands abound? Want to beat those decks to a pulp with only about $5 worth of commons and uncommons? You’ll be happy when you go off and tell them you could have built your deck 10 times over for the price of their one!
--- end description ---

My goal while creating this deck was to make something tricky to play casual next Wednesday with some friends, and keep it Ravnica Block. I had the advantage in making this deck that I’ve recently gotten back into Magic after missing the entire Ravnica block, so every new card came into context together. I found one VERY interesting interaction that this deck is built around: Wee Dragonauts and Psychotic Fury. With that in mind, read on:

WeeSplat

Creatures (8)
4 Wee Dragonauts -$0.40 here
4 Wild Cantor -$0.40 here

Non-Creatures (32)
4 Telling Time -$3.00 here
4 Sleight of Hand -$0.40 here
4 Psychotic Fury -$0.40 here
4 Giant Growth -$0.40 here
4 Gather Courage -$0.40 here
4 Gigadrowse -$0.40 here
4 Shock -$0.40 here
4 Index -$0.40 here
-or-
4 Commune with Nature -$0.40 here (+1 Forest -1 Island)

to deal with control:
-2 Shock
-2 Index/Commune with Nature
+4 Mana Leak

Lands (20)
7 Mountain -$0.70 here
5 Forest -$0.50 here
8 Island -$0.80 here

Total Cost: $8.60 (less than a precon!!)

As you can see, it’s a very economical deck, both in currency and mana. Most regular players probably already have half or more of this deck in their collection of misused commons, so whipping it together for a match should be a breeze.

Playing this deck is pretty simple. Use the Telling Times, Sleight of Hands, and Index-es (I know, indeces, but the link!) to find yourself a Wee Dragonauts and a Psychotic Fury. Play the Dragonauts turn 3 (or 2 with the Wild Cantor), and next turn Psychotic Fury plus your two best spells (or three or four if you have a Cantor convoking for Gather Courage and then sacrificing!), and attack for Lots. Those two (or three or four) spells can either directly pump the Dragonauts (Giant Growth, Gather Courage), or clear the way for him to plow through (Shock, Gigadrowse), OR look for either of the above from the top of your library. It’s as basic aggro as you can get!

An ideal game goes like this:
Turn 1: Mountain, Wild Cantor
Turn 2: Island, attack with Cantor, 2nd main sac for Dragonauts
Turn 3: Forest, Cantor convoke for Gather Courage then sac for Giant Growth and Psychotic Fury on the Dragonauts, swing for 24 flying

You’ll have to trust me, but as I write this I’ll deal up a hand and see how a random game goes:
Turn 1: Island, Sleight of Hand (Forest into hand, Sleight of Hand onto bottom)
Turn 2: Forest, Wild Cantor
Turn 3: Mountain, Wee Dragonauts
Turn 4: Island, Psychotic Fury (3/3), draw, convoke for Gather Courage (7/5), Giant Growth (12/8), Gigadrowse (for 2 if needed, sacing Cantor) their blocker(s) (14/8) and swing for 28 flying. All of that was instant-speed, too, so if there were no flying blockers, I could have Gigadrowsed their lands at the beginning of my upkeep, forcing any burn/removal, responding with either Gather Courage or Giant Growth.

As you can see, it’s very fast, but also very susceptable to burn/removal (less to burn if you have one of the green pumpers). It has a tough time against chump blockers, where Gigadrowse and Shock are the only answers, but we’re relying on speed to outrun them.

I should probably attempt a sideboard, as per Felipe’s suggestion, to deal with these and other problems:
4 Mana Leak - For dealing with removal, can play Telling Time if this is
unneeded on any turn
4 Naturalize - Stall their Signets, if not taking out Glare of Subdual, Faith’s Fetters, or any other problem artifact or enchantment.
Life from the Loam will probably help against Vore decks, but I won’t officially advocate it for this deck, since it’s a rare and hurts that theme of this deck :P.

I thought about playing Gelectrode, but that’s too easily burnt, he’s slower than the Dragonauts and doesn’t do the fantastic things they do with double strike.

Anybody with the resources could easily spruce this deck up for serious tournament play by substituting the pricey dual lands (or pain lands) for the normal lands, and put in a suitable sideboard (Defense Grid comes to mind) to deal with the metagame. As I said, I’m newly back on the scene, so I don’t know what to expect from recent decks, so I’m open to input on how to shape this deck and hopefully serving an upset at FNM next week ;).

I encourage all of you to try it out before deciding on the feasability of this deck going off like I’ve described. I use Apprentice for deckbuilding to help fix mana curve issues and playtest to see how decks could go (I actually haven’t played against somebody yet, but aggro doesn’t care what THEY do anyhow), so I encourage you to grab that program and try out a few hands. You could be suprised!

Also, any feedback on this article writing would be nice. This is my first time submitting anything like this, so I’d like to know how I can be more informative/organised in the future!

Move aside, Sterling Grove!
Thanks, and enjoy!

Last edited by BrianBoitano on Sun Jun 18, 2006 1:10 pm; edited 4 times in total

Felipe Musco

Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 4:36 pm

Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 2434 Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil

Well, as a rather new writer myself, I’d like to, first off, welcome you to our humble Forum (and you’ll see what I’m talking about, LoTR RULES here, let’s change that!)! Always good to see new writers, as new minds and ideas are ALWAYS a great asset to help us players!
I absolutely LOVED this deck, if you read my article "Brazillian Regionals Planning", you’ll understand why.
Just some hints I’ve already got from some other people:
Cards that do not shuffle you library, but rather "organize" them are not THAT nice, so be careful with Sleight of Hand and Index. However, I still like Sleight of Hand, so I’d just suggesting taking out Index, maybe using another card-draw spell, or maybe some counterspells, like Mana Leak.
One more thing, as a general hint: most of us here are tournament players, so don’t limit yourself to the Ravnica block, but rather to the Standard format. And also, always post a general Sideboard idea. Of course, the SB will change from area to area, depending on the meta, but it would be nice to:
1-Have ideas on what to use
2-See the meta in YOUR region (who knows, we may stumble in a rather different meta, from which no one was prepared to defend against).
Other than that, as I said before, I liked the article VERY MUCH. I’ll check on spoiler lists later, and post some OTHER ideas, and who knows, I may even build a slightly different version of it for the Regionals here! I’ll wait you edit the post with the SB, at least, before voting, but so far, so good!

I don't like YOU.

BrianBoitano

Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 5:43 pm

Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Posts: 124 Location: Houston, TX

Thank you, Felipe, for the warm welcome and for taking the time to review my post and give me your (welcome) input!
Well, the original deck build accidentally had Commune with Nature instead of Index, but once I found out it was Kamigawa block, I shuffled to find the replacement Index, and put in the Gather Courage to offset the color change. I also had Rain of Embers to touch on their life total, and because one of my friends has a mean convoke deck, but the Embers were too costly at 1R and Gigadrowse made more sense to take care of blockers.

Might of the Nephilim is also a great boost-card for this deck, giving the Dragonauts +6/+4, or suprising by giving the Wild Cantors +4/+4 to block or swing near the end. They are a bit expensive, and would throw the color ratios off a bit, so they’ve been excluded here.

Index is best as a turn 1 play, setting another one of the card manipulators near the top. I thought about Drift of Phantasms to stall or transmute, but they also seemed too slow here.

The sideboard issue is a tough one to tackle. As a stranger to the current average metagame, I have no idea what to expect except what I can read in the forums here. So going by that, I’ve added a tentative sideboard and sideboarding guidelines to the above post.

Thanks for all the help, keep it coming guys!

Felipe Musco

Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 5:54 pm

Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 2434 Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil

For a SB, or even changes to the MD, here are some cards you may want to think about, like:
Mana Leak (best counterspell out there nowadays)
Shattering Spree (having replicate makes it GREAT for Dragonauts)
Naturalize (takes out signets AND things like Worship)
Gelectrode
Vision Skeins (it’s better to simply DRAW the cards rather than just reorganizing stuff)
Seal of Fire (rather cheap burn)
Volcanic Hammer (good burn, good damage)

I don't like YOU.

BrianBoitano

Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 6:13 pm

Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Posts: 124 Location: Houston, TX

I agree with Mana Leak and Naturalize, in fact they’re already in my tentative sideboard above.
Sadly, replicate doesn’t play the copies, just puts them on the stack (See: Mirari et all), so Dragonauts don’t benefit beyond the first one.
Gelectrode is too slow for this deck, and even weaker to burn
Vision Skeins would replace Telling Time in the mana cost department, but the difference is Telling Time lets you dig 3 deep and ignore unneeded land or draw cards, where the Skeins would only give me the top 2 and giving my opponent something to go with too.
Seal of Fire doesn’t help the Dragonauts much, but they could be a first-turn drop.
Vocanic Hammer was in there in the first version of this deck, but was taken out because it was sorcery speed while giant growth was instant speed. It might get put back in, but it’s difficult to find room.

Thanks again for the input!

Felipe Musco

Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 6:24 pm

Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 2434 Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil

I just worry that Dragonauts is the ONLY win condition on the deck. Play a Golgari (black/green) deck with acceleration, and you could expect a turn 3 Cranial Extraction... Something like this would KILL you deck (literally), so you have to have AT LEAST one more win condition, and Gelectrode DO seem like the best one. Silhana Ledgewalker can also be very nice.

I don't like YOU.

BrianBoitano

Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 7:04 pm

Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Posts: 124 Location: Houston, TX

That would be another reason for main-decking Mana Leak. Either I go first, in which case the Cranial Extraction misses the Dragonauts in play, or I go second, in which case I counter the Cranial Extraction. I feel that it’s easier to deal with removal and protect my win condition with Mana Leak than to focus on multiple ways of winning. It seems like a crazy idea to hinge the deck on one win condition, but that’s the heart and soul of aggro. Another interesting way of dealing with Cranial Extraction is to hose up the mana in the form of Gigadrowse during their upkeep. They can still use the mana on instants, but Cranial Extraction and whatever they draw will be excluded from their options.

More! More feedback!

The First

Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 6:30 am

Joined: 07 Oct 2005 Posts: 195 Location: Anderlecht, Belgium

La_Sin_Grail once posted a similar deck. Used Dragonauts and Gelectrode and lots and lots of cheap spells (lotr and lotr for Felipe).

Quote:

LoTR RULES here

The problem is that not only Cranial cripples this deck but also creature removal (spot or mass). Counter- or aggrodecks will have some fun with it. Such decks only need to focus on removing/countering/blocking 1 or 2 dragonauts and they’ll have a lot of time to play their game and finish you.

Counterspells are nice but they dilute you from your main theme. You want to play spells during your turn to pump the Dragos. Countering Cranial is during opponent’s turn. You also can’t just "play" a counterspell to pump the Dragos during your turn.

Why not use a few of those transmutable flying walls to fetch the Dragos? Electrolyse is a cantrip that can divide damage (=GOOD). Boomerang is nice for some extra bounce/removal.

Great minds bleed alike.
Do not copy media. Support creativity.

BrianBoitano

Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 11:09 am

Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Posts: 124 Location: Houston, TX

Thanks, after I posted this deck I went looking for similar decks, and found La_Sin_Grail’s. It’s a very consistent deck, and it follows the same principles, but it has a different goal in mind. It’s more of a utility deck, since it can divide and conquer, while this deck is more focused on taking out the opponent before they can play their threats or answers.
I think it might be wise of me to remove 2 Gigadrowse and 2 Commune with Nature to maindeck 4 Mana Leaks if there’s a lot of countermagic or spot removal in your metagame. Again, I have no metagame, so I wouldn’t know.

Again, a Gigadrowse is just as good as countering a Cranial, since it ties up the mana when they need it least.

The transmutable flying walls help find the Dragonauts, but we already have 3 dedicated cards to do that for us, and each of those also feed the Dragonauts when they’ve been found, and two of them find more food for the Dragonauts, where the Drift of Phantasms is only good for 1 card in the whole deck, and if by turn 3 I haven’t found it it’ll be a tough game to win anyways.

Electrolyse is a great spell, but it’s too slow for this deck. I urge those of you who wish to add 3cc or higher spells to get Apprentice and try this deck out, because it really doesn’t need to be waiting around.

Thanks for the input, it seems I’m getting closer and closer to maindecking some countermagic. I’ll test it out a bit and let you guys know what works.

Memnarch Mastermind

Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 2:43 pm

Joined: 24 Jan 2006 Posts: 49 Location: Bochum/Germany

Quote:

Again, a Gigadrowse is just as good as countering a Cranial, since it ties up the mana when they need it least.

What do you mean by that? I don’t want to question your knowledge of rules, but you have to play gigadrowse during their Upkeep to make it work like you want. I’m telling you that because some of my friends and I had a slight problem... they didn’t believe I still can tap the lands for mana in response to Gigadrowse played in my main phase. So I just wanted to tell although I think you got it yourself.
But I am not convinced that it would be effective against blockers. Imagine someone plays "airforce"(deck with mostly flying creatures). Would you be able to stop all blockers?

I think there is potential in this deck, but IMO it has to become more burning and crushing than it is right now.
La_Sin_Grail’s deck has many burn-effects though it is mostly a UR Izzet-deck. However, if you change it in this direction you are right with the assumption you’ll lose your primary focus.Better try to shape it.

I also know how difficult it is to build a real good budget deck but keep in mind that some cards have their prices for a reason(that may not be true for all cards!), therefore you maybe add some nice rares that underline your basic idea.

According to general transmute abilities... every transmutation costs somehow 3 mana so I find it better to use them for really important cards like Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind who also would be a fine star in your deck.Take one copy of him and use transmuters like Ethereal Usher. This card may also have a good use for your other creatures.
Therefore Drift of phantasm is just waste of cards in your deck, you made the right decision with leaving them outside.

You have just 8 creatures in your deck, if I remember. Wee dragonauts look phantastic, but you might wanna take some better flyer in, e.g. Trygon predator or unblockables like Dryad sophisticate or phantom warrior. You also should use the advantage of mana acceleration through green. Utopia sprawl is also very nice, maybe Coiling Oracle would also make a good option.
If you fill your deck with creatures, however, you should consider Halcyon glaze. Every card I mentioned is just an example what you could do, not what you should do.

I hope I could help you a bit. Nevertheless it is really good to build decks around commons although it is quite hard. You can become a real draft/sealed deck champion this way while others don’t even know that such things like commons really exist(I think you guess what I mean...)

Go on and keep writing! Applause

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